Americorps

Bethlehem Farm

Summers County, WV. Bethlehem Farm transforms lives through service with the local community and the teaching of sustainable practices. It is an intentional community located in Talcott, WV that provides education on local foods and sustainability to the local community as well as to service week volunteers that come from all over the country to work in gardens and on build projects. AmeriCorps Caretakers serve as service week leaders, coordinate and develop the Repairing Homes, Renewing Communities (RHRC) program, and interact with volunteer groups during their visit to Bethlehem Farm.

Coda Mountain Academy 

Fayette County, WV. HALF YEAR TERMS START March 2023. Coda Mountain Academy, Inc. is based in Fayetteville, West Virginia and has several programs: Coda Inspire, Coda Kidz, and Coda Mountain Academy Summer Music Festival. All Coda programs are held in Fayette County, West Virginia, but have extended to five other counties and seven other states. Coda Mountain Academy values the development of the whole person. The larger goals of Coda are to equip youth with the tools they need to live productive and fulfilling lives.  Through developing exposure and opportunities that promote healthy goal setting, positive identity, strong character, resiliency and life skills, Coda hopes to change the world, one child at a time. Mutual respect is encouraged between all regardless of faith, gender, ethnicity, or national origin.  

Fayette County Schools Child Nutrition Program

Fayetteville, WV.  HALF YEAR TERMS START March 2023. The AmeriCorps member will provide information to Fayette County schools on the local WV farm raised foods they receive to serve on their cafeteria lines and talk with students during lunch about the local products and farms they came from. The member will coordinate planting, care, and harvesting demonstrations provided by local farmers who are supplying our cafeterias. The member will serve with non-profit farms to set up Pop Up Farmer’s markets at all the Elementary schools in county. These markets help kids exercise freedom in choosing their fruits and vegetables. After a Pop Up Market children often try fruits and vegetables they wouldn’t have otherwise. The AmeriCorps member will also mentor with the county Agriculture Education Instructor to provide the support and education needed for High School students to orient their Supervised Agricultural Experiences next summer to provide produce for the Summer Food Service Program and National School Lunch Program in the Fall.

Gainer Center

Elkins, WV. HALF YEAR TERMS START March 2023. An AmeriCorps member will focus their service on planning new community-oriented events, recruiting students and volunteers; Planning and delivering youth-based community events to promote wellness; Planning and delivering a youth based activities fair; Planning and delivering special programming weekly for youth participating in ENGAGE After-school; and Striving to create an environment of learning and inspiration

Lewisburg, WV. HALF YEAR TERMS START March 2023. The Greenbrier County Health alliance (GCHA) is sponsored by the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine, Center for Rural and Community Health with grant funding from West Virginia Clinical Translational Science Institute. The GCHA’s mission is to empower all local communities in Greenbrier County to improve health through community action and innovative programming.  A key component to the Alliance coordinated approach for the community health outreach is the use of community ambassadors. AmeriCorps members serve to expand the ‘community ambassador’ project and support ambassadors to represent their community’s needs and provide solution-focused leadership to promote health behaviors.

Meadow River Valley Early Childhood Learning (MARVEL)

Rupert, WV. HALF YEAR TERMS START March 2023. The Meadow River Valley is an area immersed in scenic beauty, driven by resilient communities that are forging a brighter tomorrow and bringing people, ideas, and resources together. In this region consisting of the communities in eastern Fayette and western Greenbrier Counties in West Virginia, the friendly, talented, and hardworking people of the Meadow River Valley communities have worked together to overcome what seemed to be overwhelming obstacles in ways that could not have been done individually. The Meadow River Valley communities have leveraged the regions scenic beauty, rich history, location, and natural resources with entrepreneurial spirit, caring volunteerism, and a lot of divine intervention to provide safe, nurturing relationships that enable children and families to learn and grow through education, healthy nutrition, and physical activity through the Meadow River Valley Early Childhood Learning (Marvel). The MARVEL AmeriCorps member will recruit and direct community volunteers with the objective of building capacity and increasing the reach of the MARVEL Center.

Pocahontas County Free Libraries

Pocahontas County, WV. HALF YEAR TERMS START March 2023. Pocahontas County Libraries & Visitor Information Centers (PCLVIC)  is comprised of five libraries, stretching from one end of our rural West Virginian county to the other. The main branch, McClintic Library, is in Marlinton, with additional branches in the communities of Durbin, Green Bank, Hillsboro and Linwood. PCLVIC’s mission is to “fulfill the informational needs of our residents and visitors”. An AmeriCorps position supports increasing library relevancy for youth.

Potomac Valley Audubon Society

Shepherdstown, WV. HALF YEAR TERMS START March 2023. The Potomac Valley Audubon Society (PVAS) was organized in 1982. We are a chapter of the National Audubon Society and draw our members from Jefferson, Berkeley, and Morgan counties in West Virginia and Washington County, Maryland. PVAS offers a wide variety of youth events and programs for children, adults, and families. Our goal is to get people of all ages outside to explore and learn about the natural world. We also work closely with a variety of partners to conserve natural areas for habitat protection and for people’s enjoyment. AmeriCorps members will engage with students in grade specific programs and provide learning opportunities for students in both in the classroom and at day camps for youth from pre-K –6th grade.

Sprouting Farms

Summers County, Fayette County, Wayne County, Kanawha County.  HALF YEAR TERMS START March 2023. Sprouting Farms Appalachian Croft and Training Center is a four-season non-profit farm and education and resource center located in Summers County WV, with partner sites at Refresh Appalachia, and New Roots Farm.  We believe that long-lasting impact is created by training new farmers in quality and sustainable production techniques, and by providing shared resources and educational opportunities to the whole farm community. Our programs provide farmers with sound business management and production skills, hands-on apprenticeship and mentorship, and the land and resources necessary to launch and refine their farm businesses. The AmeriCorps member will focus on scheduling and hosting educational events and workshops, community outreach and recruitment of volunteers among other projects. 

TRY THIS WV!

Statewide, WV.  HALF YEAR TERMS START March 2023. An AmeriCorps member will serve by networking with and forming community partnerships for running/walking programs – and individuals – statewide and getting a wide range of them involved as community partners to help improve health and wellness attitudes in West Virginia. Placing information about new community group partners on the Web site. Making the Web site calendar a true statewide calendar with as many races/events on it as you can find. In-state and out-of-state people should be able to look at it and find out what’s happening at any given time. Helping support, organize, publicize and participate in the workshops that occur during your service. Making short “how-to” videos that will be useful to West Virginians who want to start a local volunteer running program.

WVSOM Center for Rural & Community Health

Lewisburg, WV. HALF YEAR TERMS START March 2023. The WVSOM Center for Rural and Community Health supports the osteopathic medical education focus on team-based and patient-centered care and the integration of prevention and population health to improve quality and efficiency of health care delivery.  This is accomplished by developing programs that contribute to improving health in rural communities, supporting clinical research in rural practices, developing resources that support these efforts, providing education to communities, rural providers and students, and developing collaborations that support these efforts.

WV Robotics: Fairmont State University and the NASA IV&V Education Resource

Fairmont, WV. The Education Resource Center at the NASA IV&V Facility in Fairmont, WV is the one of the longest running and largest STEM initiatives in West Virginia. Through our educator-trainings, we impact over 1,000 teachers, pre-service, and after-school educators who in turn borrow our STEM classroom kits and engage over 15,000 students per year. We manage 12 competitive robotics programs that engage over 6,000 students in 500+ teams per year, and these numbers are increasing annually. An AmeriCorps member placed at our organization would help to train students, teachers, out-of-school educators, and volunteers in the competitive robotics programs, with a focus on the VEX IQ (elementary/middle) and VEX EDR (middle/high) platforms and how to effectively compete. In addition, our AmeriCorps volunteer will help prepare for, and conduct robotics competitions across the state. Through a program funded by NASA, our AmeriCorps volunteer will be distributing $30,000 per year in robots to start new competitive teams.

Apply to be an AmeriCorps Member Now!

Have questions or ready to apply? Contact us at americorps@highrocks.org, 304-653-4891, or High Rocks, 195 Thompson Rd., Hillsboro, WV 24946.

Learn more by reading a sample road map of a member's year of service activities.